Man shoots bus driver, takes child in Alabama

January 30, 2013News Extra

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — Police, SWAT teams and negotiators are at a rural property where a man is believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker this morning after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said.

The man boarded the stopped school bus in Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olsen said. The driver later died of his wounds. His identity wasn’t released.

The shooter took the child, authorities said.

County coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said the overnight standoff continues early today with tactical units, negotiators and other officers at the scene near a church. He said the suspect was believed to be in an underground shelter on his property.

“That’s what has been described to me as an underground bunker. Someplace to get out of the way of a tornado,” Hilboldt said.